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Chakvetadze sees off Daniilidou in Bank of the West

Top-seeded Anna Chakvetadze fell behind early before rallying for a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic on Thursday.

India's Sania Mirza and Olga Govortsova of Belarus also reached the quarter-finals, both sending home a seeded player. The 35th-ranked Mirza beat sixth-seeded Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin 6-4, 6-1, and Govortsova, a qualifier, upset fifth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Fourth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland defeated Russian qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5, 6-2 in another second-round match.

Chakvetadze, who won the title in Cincinnati on Sunday, currently owns a career-high No. 7 ranking. She trailed Daniilidou 4-2 in the first set before quickly taking control.

"It was my first match on the court and I didn't get used to it," she said. "Yes, it was a slow start and I was moving slowly. Then I just decided to play better."

Chakvetadze won seven straight games and 10 of the final 11 overall to breeze to the victory.

"I just focused on my game," she said. "The court was a little faster than I expected so I wanted to play the ball earlier."

Chakvetadze said she raised her level of play at about the same time last year. She hasn't slowed down since.

"At the beginning of last year I was losing a lot in the first round," she said. "Then I started to get a few victories the second part of the year and that helped my confidence."

She's already won three tour titles this year, and felt she wasn't playing well.

"This match I played much better than I did all week in Cincinnati," Chakvetadze said. "I didn't expect to be the top seed here, but it's always better to get a seed and get the bye."

Mirza, who missed over two months of the season with a right knee injury, moved well and served well against the 19th-ranked Golovin.

"Beating a top-20 player is always good, especially beating someone you have never beaten before," Mirza said. "It is definitely one of my top wins. She is in the top 20 and playing well this year."

The 100th-ranked Govortsova continued her run with a surprise win over the 18th-ranked Peer. She reached the quarter-finals at a WTA Tour event for the first time.

"Before this tournament I was making some mistakes," Govortsova said. "I think that I am improving now because I play a lot of matches regularly, every day against good players. Last year, I did not really do very well but now I have beaten some good players and have confidence."

Top-seeded Francesca Schiavone beat Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals of the Gastein Ladies.

Schiavone, who broke serve four times in the first set, will next play sixth-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary, who beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-0.

Szavay, who won in Palermo last week, swept eight straight games after being broken while serving for the first set leading 5-4.

Also in the second round, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (6).
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